1. Introduction

One of the soft opinions in Diary of a Bad Year focuses on a fictional fan mail. The main character, the senescent author Juan C, gets a letter from a Swiss woman who complains about his way of characterizing female figures. Besides, she opines that he “understand[s] nothing about women” and “particularly about women´s sexual psychology” (161) ¹ . The addressee´s reaction to this critique is a rather cynical reference to the female reader´s “paranoid” way of perceiving his books (162), but he does not give a direct answer. So the reader of J.M. Coetzee´s Diary of a Bad Year is left with one question: What is Senor C.´s image of women and how much does it differ from the fictional reality? Because there is only one female character in the novel who is described by Juan C. in detail, this question must be answered by examining his image of Anya. She is presented by Coetzee through her own and Senor C´s perspective, both recorded in diary entries. Reading Juan C´s journal, one can observe three images he has of Anya. He sees her as an “angelic” (8) and “heavenly beauty” (190), as a rather stereotypical simple wife, and as the woman of his erotic fantasies. Referring to Anya´s diary entries, some of these images are proved, some turn out to be wrong and some are consciously supported by her.

2. The heavenly beauty

The first time Juan C meets Anya, he carefully describes her dress “that showed off a derriere so near to be angelic” (8). Although this comment might refer to Anya´s physical features as well, it also reveals the writer´s perception of her charisma. She is not just wearing something to be clothed, but is dressed “in a flash of white slacks”, a metaphor which evokes an image of innocence and beauty at the same time. Her charm on him seems to be tangible in his comment about Anya´s “currents” she “release[s] into the environment” and that “crackle[...] the air around” them (13). This supernatural picture is also expressed when he ponders on his dream about his end of life (59-65): Even though he wonders if he agrees with Anya as the “one” who “conduct[s]” him to death (60), she appears to him in the role of a redeemer. Just this role of an angel is mirrored in the question “Are you new on this earth?” (5) or the periphrasis “heavenly beauty” to describe Anya (190). Moreover, Coetzee makes him idealizing her by a climax of antonyms: To Senor C, Anya is far more than “sweet as opposed

¹  Coetzee, J.M.: Diary of a Bad Year. The following pages of this book are not marked with further information.  2   

to salty” or “gold as opposed to silver”, but “earth as opposed to air” (112-113). This last antonym is meant to picture her steadfast loyalty and reliability.

Without a doubt, Anya is a reliable secretary who “meets her daily quota” (25) as well as an honest partner in conversation. Though, she seems to be as faithful to her partner as to her boss. In her last letter to Senor C, Anya ensures that she “never really listened when Alan ranted on about” him. This is not very convincing considering several of her diary entries where she noted down her partner´s estimations on Juan C´s unworldly opinions word by word.

In this very latter, she also tantalizes Juan C. with a future he will never reach: “In another life [...] I could be your inspiration. Your resident inspiration. How would you like that? You could sit at your desk and write, and I could take care of the rest. [...] Pay no attention. Just an idea” (204). These quietly whispered words evoke a picture of the writer and his secretary as a happy couple with fixed roles. Yet Anya only dares to play with his desire for her because she knows that Juan C is too old to realize these dreams. Anya´s comment that she is not a dreamer but a practical person (205) supports this thesis that she is just creating an illusion. Moreover, her angel-image seems to be consciously constructed. A woman with a dressing room full of clothes can be expected to think about what she signals with her appearance. Hence, she is “clad all in white”, keeps her “eyes cast down” and “claspe[s]” her arms “over her breast” (149) to make Senor C believe in her virtuousness after he offended her by saying that she has been “dishonoured” (111).

3. A blonde-eyed lady-friend

Only Juan C´s concept of women is as stereotypical as Anya´s behaviour towards her boss. To Senor C, all women are convinced to have an” intuitive feel”, and no “self-respecting woman would want to deny” this (19). By calling Anya Alan´s “lady-friend” (169), he also hints at her inferior role in their partnership. Moreover, he expects Anya to identify with clichéd female topics. Thus, he is sure that she will appreciate the subjects in his second set of views, which embeds a “gentle opinion on birds” and “on love, or at least on kissing between a gentleman and a lady” (145). This rather simple notion of a woman´s interests is repeated in his comment on Anya´s activities and her intellectual horizon. Consequently, he remarks that her “days [are] more or less empty” and therefore, she goes shopping whenever she can and 3   

considers work as a relief (67). Anyway, Juan C. knows that Anya “went to international schools all over the place“(70) but doubts if she has learned anything there (71). Again, some of Senor C´s judgements on Anya seem to be proved right by the utterances Coetzee makes her say or write. The fact that Anya takes the job as Juan C´s secretary after he mentions her “intuitive feel” provides evidence that he estimates her right. She also fits into the pattern of a clichéd wife: In the last letter for Juan C, she describes herself as a “good wife[...], good mistress” and “good friend[...]” (217). Further, Anya´s diary entry states that “being with a man means being on his side” (109) and that she likes being regarded as Alan´s trophy (162). This proves Senor C´s opinion about Anya´s role in her relationship. However, the topics she enjoys to read about differ slightly from those mentioned above: Instead of shy kisses between a lady and a gentleman, Anya wants to be told about “gossip, sex, romance” and “all the juicy details”. Additionally, his remark about her consume is answered by Anya with an ironic allusion to the former first lady of the Philippines (70), which makes the reader refuse the image of a rather simple “tipitista” (28). According to Dominic Head, Anya is “feisty rather than mindless” ² , especially when she answers Juan C.´s questions about her origin (31). The utterance “Am I not blonde-eyed and blue-haired enough for your tastes?” would show “Anya´s hidden complexity”, because she reveals Senor C´s “degree of unconscious racism in his assumption about her, while also hinting, in the deliberate confusion of colours [...], that she is too young for him”. Moreover, David Attwell opines that she indirectly cites Shakespeare´s Hamlet in the last sentence of the narration ³ . Though the sequence “Good night, Senor C, I will whisper in his ear: sweet dreams and flights of angels, and all the rest” (227) is “judiciously trimmed to avoid the connection being too grandiose” ⁴ , it mirrors a certain literary knowledge. Hence, this fact makes it harder to believe that Anya fits into the pattern of a vacuous house wife.

4. On erotic fantasies

The third image Senor C has of Anya is her as an erotic object. This role is already expressed in the first moment he and Anya appear in the novel. Through his perspective, Anya is portrayed when wearing a “tomato-red shift [...] startling in its brevity” (3). The fascination                                                              

² Head, Dominic 2009: 93 

³ Attwell, David 2010: 215. The line Attwell writes about is “[p]art of Horatio´s final peroration”: “Good night sweet prince/ and flight of angels sing thy to the rest”. 

⁴ Attwell, David 2010: 215 

4